Monday, September 8, 2014

The Church and Wholeness

I’ve
mentioned before that a large part of my career has been spent as a
speechwriter, mostly in corporate communications with occasional (very
occasional) stints in politics. One of my favorite books, one that had an
enormous influence on the speeches I wrote, especially during the second half
of my speechwriting years, was (and is) Eloquence
in an Electronic Age by Kathleen Hall Jamieson, published in 1988

Jamieson
argued that communications technology, and specifically television, was
eliminating traditional political discourse. Television was shrinking our attention
spans to 15 seconds or less, with the hallmark of the sound bite, and that this
meant that political discourse, and by extension governmental discourse, was
becoming increasingly problematic.

While
her focus was politics and government, the world of corporate communications
was not immune. The television news show 60
Minutes almost singlehandedly changed how corporate executives communicated
and gave interviews. Everything became reduced to “three positive message
points” and “bridging every question to the positive message point you want to
make.”

Keep
in mind all of this happened before
the advent of the internet, blogs, and social media. The problem of civil and
political discourse – being able to discuss problems and issues and come to
some kind of resolution or consensus – is becoming something rare and seriously
endangered. We appear to have a national government that no longer governs but
remains in permanent campaign mode. Sound bites, like slogans, are the stuff of
campaigns. They are not the stuff of governance.

A
convergence of technology and changes in culture are at the root of our
inability to govern ourselves. Life has become a no-holds-barred political
campaign.

The
church has not been immune.

InSlow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of
Jesus, Christopher Smith, John Pattison, and
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove say this: “Western culture has been shaped under
the ever-tightening grip of technology and individualism, and the trend of
modernity has been toward greater isolation from people and places. At the same
time, we have been trained well to compartmentalize our lives and narrow our
vision. …We reduce life to broad generalities. We approach people not as unique
persons created by God but as generic categories: African American, Latino,
female, gay, wealthy, homeless, liberal, right wing and so on. We use the
labels most often with people who are different than us.”

Culture and technology is tearing us away from
each other. The story of God, and the story of the church, is the
counter-argument. As the church, we are the reconcilers. And it’s not only
about helping people understand the promise of a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ, but about the wholeness of life grounded in faith. As the authors
of Slow Church point out, “As the people of God, we locate ourselves in the
ecological story of God reconciling an interconnected creation.”

They’re
not taking the narrow definition of ecology as the natural environment, but the
ecology of life as a whole. And this is hard. We’re taught to compartmentalize
our lives. What happens at church may or may not have any application to where
we work. Our political opinions and preferences may or may not have anything to
do with our faith. How we choose to entertain ourselves may or may not have
anything to do with what we believe. What happens in society at large or with
world events may or may not have anything to do with what we’re taught in
church or what we teach ourselves from the Bible.

God
calls for reconciliation. Jesus was sacrificed for reconciliation. The church needs
to be about the wholeness of that reconciliation.

I’ve been devoting Mondays on this blog to a
discussion ofSlow Church, which I believe is one of the most important
books I’ve read about the church. This chapter is entitled “Wholeness.”

Poetry at Work

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About Me

Professional writer exploring faith and culture, life and work; happily married to Janet, the love of my life; father of two grown sons. Award-winning speechwriter and communication consultant. I am also a contributing editor for The High Calling and for TweetSpeak Poetry. I am also the author of the novels "Dancing Priest" and "A Light Shining," and the non-fiction book "Poetry at Work."